A THINK-TANK believes children should have two full years of funded nursery care.

THE current system for providing free nursery care for youngsters has been branded "grossly unfair".

Independent think-tank Reform Scotland made the claim in a new report which said some children could receive almost one year less of government-funded nursery education, depending on when their birthday falls.

It has now called for all youngsters to receive two full years of funded nursery provisions.

To achieve this, it suggested government-funded provision for all youngsters should begin at a fixed point in the year - probably August - two years before children start at school

"Every child should be entitled to two years of government-funded nursery provision, regardless of when their birthday falls," Reform Scotland said.

Alison Payne, research director at the think-tank, said: "This is a question of equality.

"It cannot be deemed to be fair that children and hard-pressed families are offered such widely divergent periods of funded nurseryprovision purely because of when the child's birthday falls."

Youngsters can currently receive 475 hours a year of free nursery care, although the Scottish Government has already pledged to legislate to increase this amount to 600 hours.

At present, government-funded nursery education begins from the start of the term after a youngster's third birthday.

That means children born between March and August will start nursery in the August term, and could receive two years of funding before they start school.

But youngsters born in January or February would not receive funding until the summer term commences in April, and assuming they start school at the age of four-and-a-half, would only get 15 months of free nursery provision.

Ms Payne said: "Not only does the system discriminate against younger school-entrants in terms of the gap in learning with their older counterparts, for families using partnership nurseries it can cost them over £1,000."

She added: "Whilst the Scottish Government's commitment to extend the current government-funded provision from 475 hours to 600 hours in the Children and Young People Bill is welcome, unless this anomaly is addressed it will widen the entitlement gap.

Reform Scotland argued nurseries have "a vital role to play not just with early years' education but also with social development of children".

Its report said: "It seems grossly unfair that all children at a basic level are not equally entitled to the same amount of government-funded nursery care."

The think-tank suggested: "Every child across Scotland should be entitled to two years of pre-school education, starting in the August of the year they turn three, just as they are all equally entitled to seven years of primary school."

It claimed while this would mean an expansion in provision, it "should not result in a huge additional cost" as it said there was spare capacity available in local authority nurseries.

But Reform Scotland said it was "alarming" that ministers did not know what the current capacity was.

The think-tank said it was told the Scottish Government did "not hold information on capacity/places of pre-school education centres".

It added: "While nursery provision may be a matter for local authorities, if the Scottish Government is going to extend requirements placed on local authorities with regard to providing nursery places, it is alarming that it would not have an idea of the current capacity before doing so."

The think-tank submitted Freedom of Information requests to councils, which it said showed there were roughly 92,265 places at local authority run nurseries, but that there were 70,150 children registered at them, showing there was spare capacity available.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "Our Children and Young People Bill aims to provide more high quality early learning and childcare for children than ever before, providing children in Scotland with the best start in life.

"The Bill also aims to provide greater flexibility of provision to meet the needs of children and their parents.

"We are aware of this particular issue and it is part of our wider considerations around the forthcoming Bill."